Of the Nautilus it is said that, when it spins around in the deepness of the dark sea, whirpools are created that not even sea serpents can escape and that the aquatic monster Kerphinode fears. These creatures' design were a petition by the king of the sea, to Ephaistos. Poseidon wanted a creature that would resist the pressure of the sea and still move swiftly through it; that it had the neverending form of the water cycle in its body and that it was the pride of the ocean. Such were the ruler's wishes and Ephaistos created the nautilus' shell and form, which has everything Poseidon asked for.

I remember growing up, my mother had a shell of one, and I had always wondered what the body had looked like until I saw it on the discovery channel and it kinda scared me. But now that I am older, I appreciate how odd and weirdly beautiful it actually is. Great job capturing the small detailPr

my dad was a pearl shell diver all my childhood. we lived in Broome, pearling industry capital of Australia until i was 8. it was his job attached to a boat to sweep over the sea floor and find wild pearl shell to be taken into the company to make cultured pearls. he found many things down there including that shell. work would usually take him out to see for up to months at a time before he would be home, so he used to bring me all sorts of treasures from the sea, coral, pearl shell shells, and of course he would always bring home a sizable ammount of seafood, like lobsters he caught and huuge fish, even a swordfish once. even before that though he was a regular sea salt. he always worked and lived in the sea from his teen years onwards. he has some cool story's, and lately with his beard i keep relating him to a old pirate haha

Oh, my word, that is just wonderful! I now have an image of him as of some character from a tale... No doubt he has many stories to tell, as you say. Oh, how I should like some sea treasures too... Jos, I had no idea your childhood and family were so Romantic. This is extraordinary. I wish you had told me sooner! *Akimbo*

i once had a pirate birthday party where everyone had to come dressed as a pirate and i had a cake shaped like a pirate face and we had a massive treasure hunt in the beach caves to find a chest full of chocolate coins :3

something you would like about broome is the stairway to heaven festival they have. its when the tide goes low enough to reveal the sand banks and the moon is huuuge, full and low on the water. it creates the illusion of ascending steps of moonlight up to the moon. and they have a festival with music and food and aboriginal style animals made of sparklers that they put on the beach. and there was the old guy that would play the didgeridoo and it was such a haunting melody.

it was good fun

we also had the circus come to town once, it wasn't a huge circus on the de soules scale of nowa days, but it was still a circus, and it had a Ferris wheel and stuffed animals cleverly put into inflated balloons so that when it popped the kid didn't feel so bad XD

broome was nice, i have a lot of fond memories of living there.sad to say though it was better as a local thingbroome has become a bit of a tourist trap now-a-dayswhich was part of the reason we moved.hah the whole reason is much to lengthy and depressingbut yesits still a great place for a holiday though :3

Your pirate birthday sounds fantastic (hmm, this has given me a glimmer of an idea...)And that was rather sweet of those ballons with the toy animals! The Stairway to Heaven festival sounds... heavenly...

I like your animal studies; I don't think they're quite as perfect as your people...yet (and this is just friendly critique, no insults intended) but i think with more time they will become quite good. The reason I say this is for most artists, who are used to seeing people and their own reflections animals are generally harder because of the fact that we don't see them as often. I have always been fascinated by marine biology, and nautiluses are one of my top favorite animals--I think you did it good justice in this drawing; maybe the shell could have been smoother around the edges, though. I absolutely love your work!!!

These were relatively quickly drawn on location rather than intensely finished - and from almost eight years ago. ^^

The curious thing is they used to tell me my animals were sometimes stronger... ^^ They were the first things I drew since I ever began picking up a pencil, and I probably drew them more than anything else throughout my early years. I didn't really like people and drew them sporadically. It wasn't until I realised I didn't have to draw the people of the real world or of the present day that I approached them more.

I don't have enough examples of the kind of complete, finished, realistic (in the natural history sense) animals to show, so I suppose the point remains moot as far as it can be concretely seen. The few I do have in my gallery here are more flavoured by my own style, as they were not really intended to be supreme specimen-type work. These days I don't really have the time nor inclination for that kind of treatment either, unfortunately. There are many people already doing that and mine won't be much different because of the dictates of that kind of realism.